This blog will be used to explore, exchange, and create ideas around 21st century collaborative learning and the environments and tools that make this learning possible--with the big goal of helping teachers and those who prepare teachers redesign teaching and learning for success in the 21st century.

March 19, 2008

Do you know Kevin Honeycutt? If you do not, you should. He is wise, talented, sincere, loves kids, and wildly funny. Here is a vidcast we did at the recent NCAETC conference. The most fun I have ever had in an interview.

National Network for Youth is proud to honor VIRGIN MOBILE
with the Golden Pen Award in addition to REPRESENTATIVE RUBEN HINOJOSA and
XM RADIO being recognized as Champions of Runaway and Homeless Youth. These
awards honor those who use their mediums ­ whether communications, the
political arena, or media- to further educate about the plight of Runaway
and Homeless Youth.

"Virgin Mobile has done an amazing job of raising the awareness level of
Runaway and Homeless Youth in this past year," says Victoria Wagner,
President and CEO of National Network for Youth. "Through their marketing
efforts, the ReGeneration Campaign, and various partnerships, they have
brought this issue to light in a way its never been seen before. We are so
grateful for their dedication to youth."

Virgin Mobile has engaged this generation of youth to educate themselves
about and be responsible for "their own". They hope to empower youth to
make a difference by bringing together organizations that care about
America's homeless children and connecting them with young people who want
to help.

Representative Ruben Hinojosa is a tireless advocate working on behalf of
runaway and homeless youth across the nation. His introduction of the Place
to Call Home Act only served to illustrate his dedication to ending youth
homelessness. Hinojosa has been quoted as stating: "It is incumbent upon all
of us to build communities with the educational opportunities and support
systems in place to help our youth become successful adults."

XM Radio will also be honored for their report on the Bob Edwards who
featuring various voices and champions of runaway and homeless youth in a
national arena.

All will receive their honors at the "Champions of Youth" dinner at the
National Network for Youth¹s annual Symposium 2008: A Blueprint for the
Future, on Tuesday, January 29, 2008, at 6:30PM at The Omni Shoreham Hotel,
2500 Calvert St, NW, Washington, DC.

National Network for Youth spokesperson, Chris "Kazi" Rolle, will present
these awards. A former homeless youth, Kazi¹s changed his life at age 18
when he committed himself to youth issues through writing, working in
schools and shelters, and finally creating the Hip Hop Project
(hiphopproject.org), an award-winning artist development program. His life
story is the focus of a feature-length documentary, "The Hip Hop Project,"
executive produced by Bruce Willis and Queen Latifah.

There are 2.5 million disconnected, unaccompanied and/or homeless youth in
our country. Founded in 1975, National Network for Youth (www.nn4youth.org) is a membership
organization comprised of young people, youth-serving agencies, youth
workers, and youth advocates. National Network members seek to ensure that
all young people can be safe and lead healthy and productive lives.

19th Annual Conference November 10-13, 2007Portland OregonBlazing Trails and Moving Mountains:Educating All our Children and Youth

August 29, 2007

"Back to School, Back in Session:

What Congress Did While You Were Away, What it is Likely to Do This Fall, and Why it Matters for Homeless Children, Youth, and Families in Your Community"

While many educators and school employees were out for the summer, Congress acted on a number of bills concerning homeless children, youth, and families. In most cases, action was not finalized, making this Fall an extraordinarily busy and important return to business. This primer is intended to help NAEHCY members “catch up” on the summer’s legislative activities, preview what is at stake this Fall, and learn how and why it will be especially critical to find ways to communicate with legislators during the autumn months.

April 11, 2007

Had an awesome time in Raleigh, NC presenting two workshops for the NC DOE state conference on homelessness. Met some incredible people with so much heart. They spend their time at work making the world a better place. Skyped in Steve Hargadon to talk about easy and cheap ways to create Internet ready computer labs for our most marginalized populations. I need to get some grant money for a few ideas I have related to enabling the impoverished with 21st Century skils. Anyone have a resource?

Speaking of Funding

Please take a moment to go VOTE on Net Squared for this project. I met one of the Board members at conference and she was so passionate for this work.

The
People, Yes is about hitting the streets (shelters, jails and other
avenues found on the other side of the digital divide) to find new
voices to add flavor to a local community blogosphere.

Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:

More
than ten years into this Age of Information, large populations of
people exist around the world without either the means or know-how to
operate online, thereby greatly reducing their individual opportunities
to participate in a wired, networked, global economy.

Just as important (if not more so) as community conversations move
from town halls into the online space, these same men and women become
sequestered from political, topical and personal conversations that
shape their neighborhoods, towns, cities and districts.

With a lower socio-economic status and a intense daily grind to
simply keep afloat, people can become lost in the shuffle,
marginalized, and in many cases, forced to participate in a
service-based economy in order to survive, let alone advance.

Who has time to dream or simply hear their own voice within the context and constraints of these conditions?

The People, Yes has similar aspirations to Global Voices, but with two significant differences:

We're going to seek out, find, develop relationships with and
empower unheard voices in our own backyard of Greensboro, North Carolina

We're going to open up the platform for current digital publishers
from Greensboro proper to join, creating a mixed presentation of
community

We're creating both an organization and a platform to develop and
extend community relationships from online to the real and back again.
By enabling people who are interested in sharing their personal
experiences and POV's with the world via a collaborative blog -- and
one day a social network -- we hope to bring attention to an
under-represented slice of local community.

Our
hope is that the entire community will benefit from the contribution of
unheard voices, perspectives and dreams. As new voices join the mix,
stereotypes will begin to shift, issues can be examined in a new light
and cross-community consensus can be forged out of a newfound mesh of
diverse online personalities.

The People, Yes
is attempting to empower people (within Greensboro, NC) with the skills
to digitize their voice. We're working actively in the homeless
community to get people to publish from any of the library branches.
Down the road, we'll expand into other digital divide communities
(e.g. the jail system), as well as open up the platform for any
Greensboro resident to publish their voice. The goal is to expand the
participants in our local online conversation and create a more
cohesive sense of community and shared humanity.

Other Poverty Resources

I was updating some resources related to the workshops over on my wiki and found these reports as I was adding the Project Hope link. Though I would share here.

Poverty ReportsTHE STATE OF AMERICAN POVERTY
Numerous reports have been released over the last several months that
discuss increasing rates of poverty across all age and demographic
characteristics. The studies consistently demonstrate that the rate of
child poverty has increased, leaving millions hungry, unsheltered, and
lacking adequate health care and child care. Below are links* to the
reports. Most surveys indicate that families seeking assistance are
unable to make ends meet, whether they are working or receiving welfare
or other government benefits. In addition, communities where people in
poverty live are strained to meet demands for food, shelter, health
care, mental health services, and other assistance that this population
requires. Many requests for assistance go unmet.

Web 2.0 and its Potential for Breaking Generational PovertyWhen I speak at conferences about homelessness one of the things I emphasize is the potential of the Web for helping enable those who need it most. There are lots of great examples of the homeless who are starting to realize the potential for using these tools as a way of climbing out. Now we just need to get homeless service providers and those of us interested in helping on board and connected.

Steve shared with me about how librarians fit into the solution. If we can get librarians to offer technology instruction to their homeless clients what doors would that open? I always recommend getting an email address (an address that never changes) by using free computers in the library to the homeless Moms with which I talk.

Maybe we could set up labs of Internet ready machines using Steve's CD in libraries and offer classes for the homeless to improve their job marketability by teaching them a valuable skill set, or offer online mentors (teachers) willing to help homeless kids with homework and nurturing, and possibly help the homeless get connected to services and people that can make a difference in their circumstance. For taking the computer class, libraries could give away a free USB drive to make any files they create portable.

Wouldn't a Craig's List for the homeless be cool?I bet you--like me--have tons of portable technologies to donate that would be perfect for the homeless and others trapped in poverty.

Cell Phones for the HomelessOne of the things that perpetuates the cycle of homelessness is not being contactable. How is someone going to call you back about a job application? How about if we got a grant to provide cell phones and prepaid cards for the homeless? And with the newer 3G cell phones that could even be the answer to connectivity! Because of their mobile nature, the homeless like things that are small and
portable. Everything needs to be easily moved around, everything needs
to fit into a backpack. With cell phones going for $30-$50 and the way we all upgrade continously there has to be a way to recycle older phones for the homeless. Recharging wouldn't be a problem as there are plenty of places to plug in to recharge. Invitation to be CreativeI want to invite service users, service providers, grass roots organizations, and other interested stakeholders who work or care about marginalized groups such as the homeless who regard themselves as tech savvy and web 2.0 experts to help me brainstorm Internet/communication based outreach/interventions.

I hope you will take a moment to share your ideas here or on your blogs and then link them to here. If there are enough of us-- maybe we could create a social network community on Ning and start launching some of these ideas? I belong to the DDN but even there it seems to be lots of individuals doing their thing and then sharing what they have done. What if we figured out a thing or two that really worked and did it together? Please leave me a comment here if you are interested in collaborating and please spread the word to see if others would be interested. So-- please share.. what ideas do you have?

BTW...as I was writing this a family member came in and said I have an idea. The military has huge trucks that do laundry. They pull into an area where military are camped without washing facilities and do large amounts of laundry very quickly. Why couldnt they make themselves available to shelters and shanty towns? Or why couldnt laundry mats get tax credits for allowing people experiencing poverty to do their laundry for free?

Austin Free-Net has a cool idea. Austin Free-Net tries to involve computers in the
everyday lives of high poverty citizens. Through showing them how to look up
bus schedules, use email or even research potential employers, Free-Net
integrates the Web into their lives." Austin Free-Net is attempting to arrange classes on
using the Web and software while people wait in line each week at the
food pantry in hopes that more disadvantaged members of society will
get online.

April 06, 2007

I am preparing for a couple workshops on homelessness I will be giving next week for the NC DOE and came across these two videos. Both caused me to stop and think... reflection is a good thing. Let's see if they cause you to reflect as well.

The one about what we model to children was particularly powerful. As teachers we are also sending messages to our students everyday through our actions. Children see...Children do. What are you modeling to your students? What about your instruction communicates the values and dispositions you want them emulating as they become lifelong learners?

February 15, 2007

At the beginning of the third millennium a man began collecting cast-off computers in the corner of his dining room in southeast Portland.

People who have access are living in a different society than those who do not have access. It seems the more social change is happening on cutting edge of technology, the more we are leaving the needy in society behind that social curve.

Free Geek is doing something about it. Working for 24 hours at Free Geek will give you a free computer-(adoption). Build six computers and you keep the 6th computer for yourself. (education)

Free geek is a community....run by a community council.

After you check out this video...get your mind around the power of Open Source to solve resource issues by checking out this.

February 11, 2007

Voice for the VoicelessIn keeping with my context filter (Homeless Children and Children of Poverty) for the Connectivism conference I re-listened to Will's presentation.

Will says that networks are crucial and the best way to stay current is to network with other passionate learners who want to learn the things you do. As educators we must have a willingness to share and be transparent. He tells us that recognizing patterns is huge. As educators we should look at the distributed conversations that are out there -- which are not linear-- and synthesize ideas, pick out patterns of ideas and connect them.

Why should we be doing this? Because as educators we are modeling how we learn and act in the 21st Century. Our students learn more by watching what we do- than what we say. When teachers model how they learn form networks, then that has a
huge role in bringing technologies to students and getting them prepared
for a 21st century learning environment.

This is so true for students of poverty or even for students whose parents (regardless of socio-economic status) are not connected at home. Because if they are not modeling after you in the safety net of your classroom- where are they discovering how to grow and learn in the new technology landscape?

Ask YourselfAsk yourself- are the current methods and curriculum
being used at your school going to equip a high poverty student to climb out of
the circumstance that has been forced upon them? Will sequential, text
based delivery of state mandated curriculum truly help your most needy students
become literate in the 21st century?

I think you will see very quickly
that if for no other reason than the changing demographic of students we are seeing in our
classrooms, it is past time to make principled changes in the way we
model learning to our students. Using technology as a medium for communication and collaboration isn't a choice or
option any longer. 21st Century teaching and learning needs to be
happening NOW. These kids can't wait on policy changes. Having access
to a positive force (you) and gaining the knowledge of how to learn and connect in their world is going to be the difference between being locked in generational poverty or breaking out.

Moral ResponsibilityThe way I see it- teachers have a moral responsibility to help these students; the ones who will only learn how to make these connections in the classroom. As educators, it is our responsibility to help them recognize patterns and build on the scholarship of others while learning to access the information they need to become effective and literate in a global society. This is at the core of learning in the 21st Century.

Why should teachers unlearn what they are so vested in (their content) and expand their own learning horizon? Because if you do not show your students the power of virtual networks who will?

Will tells us that learning is no longer an event-- but occurs any time any place- 24/7. That teachers who utilize connections made online become connective learners; they begin to understand and contextualize the changes that need to take place within our schools. Teachers are empowered and equipped to be change agents.

ChallengeI challenge you to become the strong vital voice for children who otherwise would go unheard- children of poverty. Teach them how to change the circumstance in which they find themselves by giving them the ability to connect.

Change is ToughWill talked about this moment in time being a disruptive period, as most traditonal media is being challenged. We can all be journalist and report on the events of life. We can produce content and share content in expansive ways that is changing the role of information in our society. The social nature of these technologies and the connections made around them is very disruptive to traditonally held beliefs about how to act and work within our traditional social contexts.

For a child whose circumstance has conspired against them- this is great news. They are no longer held back and forced to take the hand that society and circumstance has dealt them. They can be empowered through access in the connected teacher's classroom. Connected so they can learn and grow beyond what you have time to teach them. Most homeless kids are with a teacher for such a short time. Rather than trying to "catch them up" help them learn by giving them the skills to network, to find resources and postive mentors. That way, when the next move happens in the middle of the night, they are still connected and will not suffer by losing ground. Email address do not have to change with each physical move.

Leverage the OpportunityConnectivism offers so many opportunities to leverage change as an empowerment strategy for those who need it most. It is only limited by our own resistance to innovation and unwillingness to redesign the way we do things in the classroom.

Just think if we removed time as a constant and began to think of it as a variable (something that was flexible) and instead learning became the constant- (students could take their time to master the content through their passions and perferred learning styles) they wouldnt have to keep step with a calendar to dictate what and when they learn.

What if we planned for extensions of learning outside of the classroom and spent time syndicating content for students to manipulate and contextualize in collaboration with others via the web? What if the exam was an application of the student-centered learning that resulted in a product that proved mastery of the objectives? What if teachers and students were able to be motivated to learn through their passion and strengths?

Will puts the responsibility to change on the teacher. It goes back to what I have always said-- you can't give away what you do not own. As connected teachers we own the skills- and as a result we can give them to our students. Need a reason to get connected? How about-- for the children's sake?

December 29, 2006

Had the exciting priviledge of being interviewed by Steve Hargadon for his EdTalkLive show.EdTechLIVE's weekly webcast interviews series by Steve which focus on educational technology. His goal is to produce a library of
recordings that provide good, brief introductions to different
educational technologies that can be implemented in the K-12 school
environment.

I was most impressed by his interview style which resulted not only in an effective exchange of information, but his pacing enable me to throttle the rate at which I answered-- a new experience for me, as often passion takes over when I talk about this topic and I talk way too fast. :)

For those of you who do not know Steve, he has his hands in many incredible projects.

Sheryl is a technology and education consultant
and adjunct instructor in the School of Education at The College of
William and Mary, and she was one of the organizers of the recent K12 Online Conference.

Right now, Sheryl believes, we are in a place where computing in the classroom is really going to take off.

She
feels that it is a moral responsibility of teacher-leaders in the
school to figure out how to access the tools of the web and help
students to learn to use them in a safe environment. (Again, I'm
fascinated with the contrast of Larry Cuban's views here, and also with the apparent difficulties that grass-roots technology efforts face in school decision-making.)

"You
can't give away what you don't own." Until school administrators are
experiencing the benefits of the new technologies, there cannot be more
widespread adoption of them. (This touches on the point above.)

The
students of today don't have a choice as to whether or not they will
master the skills of the read/write web (and being collaborative and
self-driven)--if they don't, they will be left behind in the work world.

The
magic of Web 2.0 in schools is individual growth toward the sense of
being "self-actualized:" students can be transformed by being able to
write things that others are interested in reading, and by being able
to collaborate with others.

The "Golden Question" right now is:
can tie these new tools to student achievement? She believes it they
can be, but it's very hard to measure because of all the other
variables.

Sheryl points out the need for balance: when you
use any pervasive educational strategy (not just the new computer
technologies), you need to make sure that there is a marriage between
the passion that is generated with a rigorous education. This should be
a deepening of learning, and be challenging. "Rigor and passion."

Many
students are going to be coming to school already well versed in the
read/write or participatory web. Her experience has been that they are
often motivated learners from these experiences.

Sheryl
talks about moving from the "Information Age" to the "Age of
Conceptualization." I'm not sure I know what the "Age of
Conceptualization" is...

The most gifted students are good at
the way school is played right now, and they can have the hardest time
adjusting to a learning environment that is cooperative and
self-directed. It is the kids who have struggled previously that really
benefit the most by being able to use these technologies. (This goes
along with Sheryl's desire to bring computing resources to homeless
youth, and her belief in how important this will be for them. See
below.)

She sees more of the writing tools being used in the classroom--blogs and wikis--but not as much podcasting.

The
real skill needed by teachers and students will be the ability to be
our own "digital age librarian," knowing how to access, select, and
synthesize all of the available information. We need to tap into the
power of "self-directed interest."

On homeless or transient children: Sheryl is a living example
of breaking the cycle of generational poverty. If we don't empower
these children with the same technologies that the affluent child will
get at home, then we are trapping them in their poverty. Homeless
children move around a lot, and often the teachers are unaware of the
true situation at home. After the interview, Sheryl and I talked at
length about creating a program for teacher mentoring to homeless
children, and the providing of computing resources at homeless shelters
(see www.PublicWebStations.com).